World Cup Fever- finally over

Raki & me at the Finals in Brussels Bar - Jaya 1

Yeah, the WC fever is finally over and suddenly we feel that life seems so empty, no more waiting for 10pm and 2.30pm matches - that to kill time, I made Cal accompany me to Mid Valley the other day. I only stayed up for three 2.30am matches (Nederlands Uruguay, Uruguay v Germany amd Nederlands v Spain..hehehe kinda obvious eh?).

The damned octopus was right - 8/8 and that gave me another reason not to blog earlier. Jo once said to me, men somehow become impotent for a week when they fav team crashes out of the WC. What about the women?

Gonna catch Eclipse with the girls tonight. Have been putting too many movies on hold - not even watched Triple Tap yet with the stunningly handsome Daniel Wu (sadly, no longer single and available).

I forsee a very packed travelling schedule for the remaining 1/2 year and hopefully by then, have more pics to post!

Till my next post from Singapore - wings, wings, wings here I come.

Lack of updates

just being lazy and without my camera cable, which I stupidly left in Singapore, I have been too lazy to post anything. And well with the world cup fever going on, nothing really interesting has been happening in my life.

Off to Bali this Saturday for a workshop and back next Wednesday. More pics to come then!

Library, The Curve

For the first time in a long long time, I've had a taste of f*****g bad service and unbelievably rude waiters.

Sad isnt it, when you have a great bar that serves Hoegaarden, a not-too-bad band and it's all spoiled by ridiculously horrid service.

Lin threw a surprise bday for her hubs at Library yest and got all of us there for what we would have expected to be a fun filled night out. Ok 2 incidences!

1) A lady came around handing over some questionnaires to fill in with regards to the new Mid Valley branch of the Library. Cal said to me to put in the other remarks column to 'get less arrogant' waiters to make the library experience more enjoyable. I completed it, forgot to return the pencil. Woman did not utter a single word to me, but tapped me on the shoulders and pointed to the pencil. Seriously??

2) Cal and Lin went to the washroom. So as usual, Lau, Jo and myself launched into a gossip session of I think would have been 'my dream guy', Jo's dream guy, Lau's dream guy or something like that. Deeply engrossed in our conversation, we did not realize that some waiter came and cleared everything on our table, including Lin's Kampai, which she had barely started on. When they got back, they were surprised. Called the waiter. He insisted he only cleared one bottle of Kampai and even had the cheek to empty the bin beside us to show only 1 bottle! He then walked off before even getting to the bottom of this. Got him back...he blamed it on the 3 of us for not telling the waiters when they came to clear our table. No apologies. Some argument ensued between Lin, her hubs and the waiter and they demanded to see his manager. Manager came, said would investigate as he had no idea who would have cleared the 2nd bottle. Never came back....(when I left at 1 ish, there was no sign of the dude). Hmm perhaps the bottle of Kampai has legs and sneakily walked away when the 3 of us were too busy chatting :)

Oh no.....late for my gym class.....! XOXO....

Love is one strange thing!

Sometimes....

Love can be the strangest thing ever.

You may find this person to be the most amazing thing that ever happened to you and he's everything that you can think of (ok maybe, a bit of an exaggeration here). You probably can't find anyone else on the same compatibility level, that makes you laugh almost as much - that when you first met you think "damn seems like I've known you forever". But yet, the feelings are purely on a friendship level. You are totally emotionless to the girls he's ever been with. You listen and you sympathize with his love problems but never never get upset or hurt.

Then there's the guy next door whom you never thought about, but he made it seem as though it was all about you. You talk, you laugh, you feel comfortable around him but he never gave you that tingling sensation or any exceptional good vibes when you first met. Suddenly, before even realizing it, you get edgy when he doesn't call, you get frustrated when you don't hear from him and you get yourself thinking, are you already into him. Oh and don't forget looking at the dreaded blackberry 1000 times a day to see if u get his texts. But it looks like he may not be that into you after all?

Then there's the guy...alwasy at your beck and call. He's like your confidante, your best friend and he likes you! But again, your thoughts are so fixed onto mr-now-who's not-that-into-you that you overlook mr nice guy's quality.....damnn
Love can be one helluva roller coaster ride. Live with it and life goes on..........

Concorde Hotel Singapore - The Follow Up

This is what real customer service is about.

So somehow, Concorde Hotel managed to track down my previous blog post complaining about their services.

The next day I got a little note slipped under my room that the Assistant Manager would like to speak to me...hmm weird....

Anyway cut the story short, I called him/ her and was asked about my blog complaints and anything they could do to make my stay better. Informed them that my room had already been cleaned and no fuss about that!

Last night got back to my room and found a big platter of fruit (very fresh!) on the work table with an apology note! Whoa...ok i'm kinda impressed at this stage.

Upon check out this morning, the very nice Mark, Front Office Manager was waiting for me to speak about the whole incident. After clearing the air, I made my way back to office before I'm off to airport at noon.

What can I conclude from this whole incident? Although Concorde Hotel is in a less strategic location as compared to Meritus Mandarin - our usual preferred hotel (now known as Mandarin Orchard Singapore), with the hotel rates and tip top customer service, it's definitely worth considering!

p/s: with my sleep problems in the last couple of weeks, I was rather surprised I managed very sound, undisturbed sleep in this hotel (free internet also!!!)! PLUS PLUS PLUS point! Now I'm refreshed and ready to start the weekend with a blast!

The Blur Taxi Man in Singapore

Got a cab from Alexandra Road to Tiong Bahru yesterday for lunch.

Arriving at our destination 10 minutes later, uncle suddenly tells us 'Aiya, I forgot to turn on the meter!' WHAT!!! Originally I thought would have been a case of cabbie trying to cheat us.

But he charged us SGD 4.00 for the ride. Christee said it would normally be more, close to SGD5. Then, I asked for a receipt.

"Sure, no problem"

Barely 1o seconds later, he suddenly exclaimed, "Aiya, I turn off the meter" HUHHHHHH!!!

Fidgeting with his meter, he managed to print a receipt with no mileage, no change in time for me. Just a receipt that indicated SGD4.00...

Uncleeee...what happen-leh!

Concorde Hotel Singapore

June 4 /2010 - Please read follow up post:
http://iamsiaoyue.blogspot.com/2010/06/concorde-hotel-singapore-follow-up.html

For some strange reasons, housekeeping services in most Singapore hotels suck. I don't know why. Every other day I get back to my room and find something is just not right. No towels, no this, no that the list goes on.

Due to the Great Singapore Sales, I guess, prices of hotels have sky rocketed around this period and I have to settle for a cheaper hotel further down Orchard Road. The Concorde Hotel Singapore looks awful from the outside but the rooms have been pretty much refurbished and I must say, in pretty good condition. No complains there. Minus point though, some of their staff standing at the entrance/ lifts area don't know how to even give u a proper smile as u walk into the hotel.

Oh ya..so I was about to bitch..I walked into my room yesterday and thought I felt something wrong. They'd forgotten to clean my room !!! I thought perhaps I'd accidentally pressed the DND sign but then I realized, the hotel was still running on the ancient system where you just leave a door card outside saying either 'please make up room' or 'do not disturb'.

So I called them ... ok a simple apology, no explanations given......and my room was cleaned while I went for my dinner and did some damage to my pockets. Seriously, why am I such a sucker for Marc by Marc Jacobs! They've finally got their own store in the Mandarin Gallery on Orchard Road! Damage done? Of course!